Button Hill Read Online Free PDF Page B

take his hand.
    Dekker moved back against the wall, beside the clock, as far from the other boy as possible. “What have you done with my sister?”
    Cobb opened the shoebox and took out a green plastic soldier. “I know you think you’re too old for these toys, but I still love them. Riley had them in her pack.” He whittled the soldier’s arms with the knife until they were sharp points. He bent down and set it on the cellar floor, then took another one out of the box and started again. “I was so lonely trapped in Nightside, I was starting to forget what it was like to play. Until you wound the Nightclock and left your sister for me.”
    â€œListen, freak,” Dekker said, “take me to Riley right now, or I’ll—”
    Cobb stood up and pointed the knife at Dekker. “Or you’ll what? You didn’t like her much anyway. Why don’t you think of me as the brother you always wished for?”
    Cold sweat trickled down Dekker’s back. Everything about the other boy filled him with fear, and he shook his head. “No. I need to find her.”
    Cobb stopped carving the soldier, as if thinking. “I’ll make you a deal. Since you won’t stay with me, why don’t we play a game instead? Remember I wanted to play Finding Things? That’s a great game. I’ll even follow the rules. If you win, you get to ask me a question, and I have to answer it.”
    â€œSo I could ask you how to get out of here?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œWhat happens if you win?”
    Cobb’s sharp teeth gleamed. “I suppose you’d have to stay here in Nightside. That’s not too much to ask, is it? I do so love to play.”
    Dekker felt his stomach churn, knowing he had to accept. “All right, deal. But if I win, you have to leave Riley alone too.”
    â€œIf I win, she will remain in Nightside.”
    â€œFine.” I have to win. There’s no way Riley can stay with this guy.
    â€œDone! The Nightclock can be our witness. Once we swear on it, the deal’s binding.” Silent as a shadow, Cobb slipped over to the grandfather clock. He pointed to the clock face. “Here—we grab the skull together and give it a turn. Then we can start the game.”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Dekker. “Aunt Primrose said it was dangerous to mess with that thing.”
    Cobb made a face. “ ‘Aunt Primrose said it was dangerous.’ Poor baby. Let’s not play then. I guess Riley will stay lost forever.”
    â€œOkay, fine,” said Dekker. They both grasped a side of the skeletal face. It felt like touching a frozen piece of metal in winter with his bare hand. Dekker tried to pull away, but his hand was stuck to the skull, as if magnetized. Cold snaked up the veins in his arm. He glanced at Cobb and saw, to his surprise, that the other boy was struggling to free himself from the skull too.
    Cobb gasped. “It hurts! What have you done?”
    â€œMe? I didn’t do anything!” Dekker put one foot on the clock’s base and pushed, but it was no use. His whole arm was throbbing, and he could smell something burning. Then the clock tolled rapidly, one bong after another, and both boys fell to the floor as the cellar throbbed with the vibration.
    As the sound died away, Dekker staggered to his feet and looked at his hand. A dark, misshapen blotch was starting to form where his hand had been frozen to the skull.
    Cobb stared at his own hand, his black eyes wide. His eyes narrowed. “What did you make it do?”
    Dekker backed away, palms forward in protest. “I don’t even know what the Nightclock is.”
    Cobb sneered. “Stupid Daysider. Nightclocks mark the passage between Dayside and Nightside, for the living and the dead. This is the dead side, for the night things. There are clocks in different parts of the world to govern the traffic in those places. This one’s